THE OBJECTIVES

The social and educational actions led within the club since the beginning in the popular district of Badawa were completed at the end of 2004 by the stay in France of 2 of the members of BUFFALO FC.

This project strengthened first of all the idea of social recognition and the notion of opening to the world which are developed locally inside the various sports projects. Having seen their faces in the French newspapers, then on television, having heard their voice on radio, with all the psychological impact which we can imagine, it is finally some representatives of the club themselves who had the opportunity to go in France …

It also illustrated our commitment in the training of our educators and the education of our young people by offering them a refreshment course abroad.
It was also a nice way to congratulate them on their performances within the club, by allowing them to discover the football in Europe, in particular his organization, its important infrastructures and his quality frame, and to learn so many things on the high-level sport, as well as the quite particular interest that carry the leaders of club in the development of the grassroots.
Once back in Nigeria, they made the other members of BUFFALO benefit from their experience and finally allowed them all to take advantage of it.
It doubtless improved the performances of all the team and brought a big motivation within the club.

This stay was also the means to make more known BUFFALO, and its multiple actions, outside of Nigeria and to try to create links with future partners. This passage in Europe could also establish the first step towards a future partnership with a foreign club so that BUFFALO can possibly benefit later from a technical, logistic support and why not financial assistance.
First contacts were realized. It is thus on the right track...

It would then allow to vary the sources of financing and to try to reach a balance of the budget which remains an essential objective for the future of the club.
Even if the sending of our best players in Europe so that they can play in bigger clubs was never the first objective of BUFFALO which prefers to concentrate on the development of youth in his environment of origin, it is a question of keeping this reality in mind as far as some of our elements begin to be tracked down and undergo more and more big pressures.
Indeed, by allowing them to participate in trainings from time to time abroad and by offering them a possibility of progressing in better conditions in Nigeria and possibly by proposing them a healthy way for their future career, from club to club without bad intermediaries, this real foreign link would allow to protect these young people from the numerous agents of players little scrupulous and the other " traffickers of legs » who roam on grounds in Africa.

Outside the ground of football, they had the occasion to discover also certain realities of the life in Europe. Indeed, this stay was different from a classic tourist journey, where « everything is beautiful », with the Eiffel Tower as the backcloth. They neither were accommodated in luxurious villas, nor surrounded with beautiful limousines under a beautiful sun as in the musical clips that the young people see all day long on " Channel O » in Nigeria, and that they then imagine to be the normal environment in Europe.
The climate of November there already cooled their mind a lot!
A passage in suburbs and in popular districts allowed them to go to meet the other young people who lead a rather difficult life there, far from the images of a hyper privileged Europe...

These members of BUFFALO represented good "ambassadors" of their country by conveying a good image of Nigeria, far from the pictures of « places populated with thieves, with regions which undergo regularly massacres and places steered by Islamic fundamentalists », widely described in the western media and very present  in the minds of people, notably since the introduction of the Charia, or whenever violent riots burst in the North of Nigeria and inside Kano in particular.
Indeed, these Nigerians are  muslim and come both from the old town inside the city of Kano. They are educated, very open-minded …
Nigeria,  in fact, is also  a place with an huge human potential.

By means of the federative force of the sport, this stay can establish the base of futur cultural exchanges, of coming together of the cultures, the friendship Christian / Moslem, which has particularly a meaning nowadays in a current climate of conflict and hatred.

It will not be simply about meetings on the ground of football. The coach, the professor in the secondary and the player who has just resumed his studies could meet later their French homologues in various schools to exchange their respective experiences.

These stays would then allow to create concrete links and possible exchanges in the future, exchange who could be facilitated via e-mail and the website of BUFFALO.

They have also just begun to learn French and this stay represented then an interesting bath of language: not easy to communicate!